Lord Voldemort: One Screwed-Up Individual
by Dia
Summary: This is a little something I did for a book report in English, and it's basically a character analysis that looks at Voldemort in a good light. I originally wanted the title to be 'In the Defence of Lord Voldemort', but it sounded to normal and cliche. Co


This is a character analysis that I wrote for a book report (which was on 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire).   
It focuses on Voldemort (in a good way) in which I almost titled it, 'In the Defence of Lord Voldemort', but   
it sounded to cliché and normal.Any ways, since this was written for a teacher that has never touched a Harry   
Potter book in her life, I put in some information most you woud think that it be absurd for a Harry Potter fan  
not to know. May that be a warning to you. Also I wrote this on Microsoft Works, so the rest of this will look   
a bit squashed compared to the width of space on a file fanfiction.net allows. Otherthan that, along with   
misspelled words and run-on sentences galore, please enjoy. *- these are in place of italics.  
  
Dia presents to you,  
  
Lord Voldemort: One Screwed Up Individual  
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'She put the seeds in me.  
Plant this dying tree.  
She is a burning string,  
and I am just the ashes.'  
  
-Marilyn Manson, 'In the Shadow of the Valley of Death'.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Lord Voldemort is a man (or living corpse)that , to any normal person that has read the  
'Harry Potter' books, deserves to be imprisoned in the horrific wizard prison Azkaban or  
killed by explicit and torturous means. Also known as, a character that (almost) everyone  
loves to hate.  
  
To wizards of the so-called 'Light', he is a *thing* to be feared, hated, and a *thing*  
that should be killed. To wizards of the so-called 'Dark', he is a savior, a *person* to lend  
your loyalty to, a *person* that can lead the damned(themselves) to a greatness never before  
seen, and of course, a *person* to never anger or betray.  
  
In the Harry Potter books, everything is categorized as 'Light' and 'Dark' or  
'Good' and 'Evil'. Information that is given to the reader about the wizarding world has  
been modified by Harry Potter's perception, meaning that the reader is absorbing  
extremely biased information since Harry Potter is extremely bigoted, close-minded,  
ignorant, naive, and rather pompous. Which leads me to believe some of the information  
we (the readers) are given may be so muddled it could be considered incorrect. Harry  
Potter's vision of the world itself is incorrect because nothing is either completely pure or  
completely evil, everyone has their flaws as well as their strengths. People have their bad  
side and their good side, it just depends on which side you tend to lean to. The only way  
to categorize the human personality and psychology is in variations of color and shades of  
gray, and even that is hard to do. Which leads me to believe that our interpretation and  
vision of Voldemort may also be incorrect. Since no human being can be completely dark  
or completely light. Voldemort could be just a shade of gray; a person who is more  
influenced by the dark side of his personality then the light. It does not completely  
eradicate the fact that he has a better side to him, which means he has the ability to be a  
good person.  
  
Now the question is, "Why does he prefer his dark side over his light side?". It's  
not that he prefers it, it's just that it (the dark side of his personality) protects the fragile  
and delicate 'light' side of his personality. The 'dark' being Lord Voldemort, the 'light'  
being Tom Riddle. Tom Marvolo Riddle is the person Lord Voldemort was born as and  
grew up as. After his wizarding education, somewhere down the road, he began to refer  
himself as Voldemort, and eventually Lord Voldemort when he reached a powerful status  
within the dark wizarding community. Tom Riddle is what he could have been, should  
have been, was, is, and a factor of an equation called life. While Lord Voldemort is the  
product of the equation. That is and may forever be, the product of the equation that has  
factors such as hate, bigotry, a harsh childhood, and every flaw of the wizarding world  
that stood against him when he was Tom Riddle. Let us examine that equation that started  
from the day of his birth till the day he became the infamous and 'evil' Lord Voldemort  
that the wizarding world sees.  
  
Factor #1: Abandonment. It was a day in the year 1930 where Tom Marvolo  
Riddle was born to a pureblooded witch and a nonmagical father with the name of Tom  
Riddle. The Father, unknowing of his wife and son's abnormalness, stood aghast as his  
wife, during labor, told him of her magic and the large possibilities of their son having  
magic. The bed on which she gave life gave her death because the husband, in disgust  
allowed her to die of child birth. Also, he took their son and deposited him at some  
run-down orphanage a couple days later. This, to a much older Tom, could have lead him  
to believe Muggles (nonmagical peoples) are 'evil' because his Father, a person who was  
supposed to love him, abandoned him.  
  
Factor #2: The Harsh Life of the Orphanage. Tom, as we learn from the books,  
was brilliant and an incredibly powerful wizard. Like Harry, Tom could have experienced  
premature 'magical' moments which could have been extremely strong and lead the  
children and caretakers of the orphanage to be wary of him because of the weird  
occurrences that seemed to be caused by him , marking him as 'strange'. Also, the fact  
that he is brilliant makes him a prime target for bullying, and being beat up by kids that  
were raised in an inner-city orphanage. The injuries received and the way they were given  
could be particularly disgusting. Also, I believe there were not any laws regarding the way  
orphanages took care of the children or treated them meaning the caretakers could have  
also participated in these beatings and may have even encouraged them. These experiences  
could have supported Tom's theories on Muggles being evil because all the Muggles that  
he has ever known have been cruel and mean to him for what he is.  
  
Factor #3: The Hypocrisy and Social Structure of the Wizarding World and  
Hogwarts. Tom, receiving the acceptance letter to Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and  
Wizardry probably held the symbolism of an entire new life, a new beginning for him.  
Unfortunately, it was just as bad or maybe even worst than the orphanage. Tom, being  
what wizards' refer to as a halfblood (half magical, half nonmagical), receives the bigoted  
hatred of purebloods and the nonsympathetic attitudes of others, while Muggle-borns'  
(magical children who are born of nonmagical families) receive sympathy along with  
hatred. Tom being a halfblood, poor, lonely orphan that has an intellect far larger than his  
years, is having a hard time as it is, and then he was placed into Slytherin. Slytherin is one  
of the 4 houses of Hogwarts, and the most infamous one at that. Slytherin is believed to be  
a training place for dark wizards aka land of pure evil, receiving an unfair amount of  
hatred from the other 3 houses even though each house has it's own slew of dark wizards  
to their name. Slytherin is blamed for 'contaminating' the wizarding world because they  
are the most vulnerable. Okay, so Tom is a brilliant, halfblooded, poor, magical orphan  
boy . Can it get any worse? Yes, it can. Some children that are put into Slytherin are  
raised to think that purebloods are superior and everyone that is or thinks different are  
below them, so Tom, who is not accepted by the rest of the school is not accepted in his  
own House! Tom, probably finding refuge by burying himself into his studies makes him  
even more antisocial and unaccepted. It also doesn't help that most teachers of Hogwarts  
do not trust Slytherins. This is where Tom's hate for the 'light side' begins. They  
(teachers, students, etcetra) dismiss him without even giving him a chance and may even  
have started his dislike for the wizarding world.  
  
Factor #4: A Sense of Duty. When at Hogwarts, somehow Tom comes to find out  
that he is the direct heir of Salazar Slytherin (a very powerful dark wizard and founder of  
the Slytherin House) and that he has inherited the gift of parseltonque (the ability to speak  
to snakes). Driven by a sense of family duty, Tom now has a goal: kill all Muggle-borns  
and Muggles. The very same goal Salazar Slytherin died for. This probably caused Tom to  
send his ancestor's basilisk ( a large serpent who has deadly venom as well as a deadly  
gaze that can either petrify or kill) against his fellow Muggleborn peers. This, if known by  
the purebloods, made them (the pureblooded witches and wizards of Slytherin) accept  
Tom, proving Tom's 'muggle + light wizard = evil' theory.   
  
Later on, Tom being powerful in the Light and Dark arts, changes his name to  
Voldemort after graduating to eradicate his past history, so he could start off new in the  
dark wizarding community. Now that you have seen the making of Voldemort, is he still  
evil to you? I'd answer no, maybe a bit physcologically discombobulated, but not evil.  
Voldemort is very much like the gunmen of Columbine, only thing is that Voldemort's  
Columbine is the entire wizarding world. The reason Voldemort relies on his 'dark side' is  
because it is the only thing known to him. The light side of his personality is completely  
foreign to him and he does not want to invest in it because there could be some major  
repercussions . He has been exposed to hatred and cruelty of many types throughout the  
years, but love to him is an alien emotion, to experience and to be the receiver of. Yes, he  
can hate because he knows how and he knows how people hate, but love? How is he  
supposed to be a caring and loving person when he has not experienced such things and he  
does not know how? Or maybe he does know how to love, but showing his love and  
friendship with others is a task that shall stand undone. Since he has not seen love and  
friendship be expressed towards him, he can not imitate or do the same. Personally, I think  
some 'Light' wizards are more corrupted than he is because they take everything for  
granted. They stick to their age-old prejudices for Slytherins which may just cause high  
concentrations of dark activity around that house . It's the only thing Slytherins can invest  
their futures in because everyone hates them .This is also one of the many reasons that  
Tom went ' evil'.  
  
Lord Voldemort and Tom Riddle. A boy and a man that are highly misunderstood and  
have suffered because of people's reluctance to learn and leave their ignorance behind.  
This ignorance being derived from ancient biases that were held against them that they  
now hold against others. Tom Riddle may be a fictional character, but what has happened  
to him happens to many children in this realistic life, and it corrupts them day by day if  
they have no one to support them. Please, if you are about to call someone a 'witch' or a  
'Jew' meaning it to be an insult, heed my words and pause your tongue from saying those  
things because hatred has its consequences for both you and that person. Just look at what  
happened to Tom Riddle, receiver and now giver of hatred, and the victims that he has  
murdered and tortured, the givers of hatred and the cause of his torment.  
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Factor #3 was the hardest for me to write because it contained information that most Harry Potter fans   
(like myself) know, and I was trying to insert my own opinions along with facts at the same time. Grr!! Why   
can't everyone be a Harry Potter fan so I wouldn't have to do that! On another note, the last bit on the last   
paragraph was my own a opinion and a middle-finger in disguise directed towards my teacher who likes her   
Christian students more than her 'wierd-ass, Gothic, may be a witch/warlock because she/he wears a lot of   
silver jewelery' students (I have nothing against Christians, it just really pisses me off when the Christian kids  
with their crosses get to go one the labtops while we (weird people) can't go on because 'we haven't finished   
our work' when in reality we finished 15 minutes before everyone else). Other than that, I must be off! May   
you all fare well! I'm currently working on and actual fic called, 'Count To 6 and Die', and yes it will be a   
Voldie featured fic so watch out for it!  
  
-Dia 


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